Location based system to deliver targeted content messages to mobile devices

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a system to implement a method to deliver a targeted content message to a mobile device base on the location of the mobile device. The system may identify a set of businesses within a coverage area of a femtocell base station to produce gathered information. The system may receive a request for a call establishment indicator from the mobile device through the femtocell base station. Targeted content messages may be identified as a function of the gathered information. Moreover, the targeted content message then may be sent to the mobile device as part of the call establishment indicator.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §120

The present application for patent is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/435,930, entitled “LOCATION BASED SYSTEM TODELIVER TARGETED CONTENT MESSAGES TO MOBILE DEVICES,” filed May 5, 2009,pending, assigned to the assignee hereof, and expressly incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The following relates generally to wireless communications, and morespecifically to distributing coupons and other targeted content messagesto mobile devices such as mobile phones based on the location of afemtocell base station utilized by those mobile devices.

BACKGROUND

Targeted content messages may include coupons as advertising devicesused by business to help persuade customers to return and redeem thecoupon at their store. A main incentive for the consumer is savingssince coupons may give a price reduction off the purchase of a productor service. Typically, manufacturers and retailers distribute couponsthrough newspapers, flyers, and mail circulars.

Recently, advertisers have taken to using the Internet to distributecoupons. Internet coupons are distributed to users at their desktopcomputers as printable coupons and coupon codes. Printable couponsinclude those coupons are available on the Internet that may be printedfrom a home computer and used in local stores. Coupon codes mostly arecode numbers that may be entered into a portion of an online orderingform. The code engages a coupon that may be applied to the totalpurchase before the consumer makes the online payment. Whiledistributing coupons over the Internet is a valuable way for businessesto advertise their services and customers to save money, their successis limited when it comes to enticing a customer to enter a store whenthat customer is near that store.

SUMMARY

Disclosed is a system to implement a method to deliver a targetedcontent message to a mobile device base on the location of the mobiledevice. The system may identify a set of businesses within a coveragearea of a femtocell base station to produce gathered information. Thesystem may receive a request for a call establishment indicator from themobile device through the femtocell base station. Targeted contentmessages may be identified as a function of the gathered information.Moreover, the targeted content message then may be sent to the mobiledevice as part of the call establishment indicator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a telecommunication system 200.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of building 300.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 to deliver coupons to mobiledevices.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 to deliver coupons to mobile devicesutilizing system 400.

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagrams of several sample aspects ofapparatuses configured to facilitate communication handoff as taughtherein.

In accordance with common practice, the various features illustrated inthe drawings may not be drawn to scale. Accordingly, the dimensions ofthe various features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity.In addition, some of the drawings may be simplified for clarity. Thus,the drawings may not depict all of the components of a given apparatus(e.g., device) or method. Finally, like reference numerals may be usedto denote like features throughout the specification and figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings. In thefollowing description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofone or more aspects. It may be evident, however, that such aspect(s) maybe practiced without these specific details. In other instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form inorder to facilitate describing these aspects.

As used in this application, the terms “component”, “module”, “system”,and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, eitherhardware, firmware, software, or a combination of hardware, firmware,and/or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but isnot limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on acomputing device and the computing device may be a component. One ormore components may reside within a process and/or thread of executionand a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributedbetween two or more computers. In addition, these components may executefrom various computer readable media having various data structuresstored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/orremote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or moredata packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with anothercomponent in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a networksuch as the Internet with other systems by way of the signal).

Furthermore, various aspects are described herein in connection with amobile device. A mobile device may also be called, and may contain someor all of the functionality of a system, subscriber unit, subscriberstation, mobile phone, mobile station, mobile, wireless terminal,device, remote station, remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal,terminal, wireless communication device, wireless communicationapparatus, user agent, user device, or user equipment (UE). A mobiledevice may be a cellular telephone, a cellular mobile device, a cordlesstelephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a smart phone, awireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), alaptop, a handheld communication device, a handset, a phone, a handheldcomputing device, a satellite radio, a wireless modem card and/oranother processing device for communicating over a wireless system.Moreover, various aspects are described herein in connection with a basestation. A base station may be utilized for communicating with wirelessterminal(s) and also may be called, and may contain some or all of thefunctionality of, an access point, Node B, or some other network entity.

Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems thatmay include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. Itis to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may includeadditional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include allof the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection withthe figures. A combination of these approaches may also be used.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. The techniques described herein maybe used for various wireless communication networks such as CodeDivision Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks,Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)networks, etc. The terms “networks” and “systems” often are usedinterchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includesWideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and Low Chip Rate (LCR). cdma2000 covers IS-2000,IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement a radiotechnology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). AnOFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA(E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA,E-UTRA, and GSM are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System(UMTS). Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an upcoming release of UMTS thatuses E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documentsfrom an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP).cdma2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3rdGeneration Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). 3GPP is a collaborationbetween groups of telecommunications associations, to make a globallyapplicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specificationwithin the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 3GPP2 is acollaboration between telecommunications associations to make a globallyapplicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specificationwithin the scope of the ITU's International MobileTelecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) project. These various radiotechnologies and standards are known in the art.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100.Exemplary wireless communication system 100 may be configured to supportthe communication needs of a number of users, in which various disclosedembodiments and aspects may be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, by wayof example, system 100 provides communication for multiple cells 102,such as, for example, macro cells 102 a-102 g. Each macrocell 102 is anarea of radio coverage in wireless communication system 100 served byone or more base stations. The wireless communication system 100 mayprovide service over a large geographic region, for example, macrocells102 a-102 g may cover a few blocks in a neighborhood.

Each macrocell 102 may be serviced by a corresponding access point (AP)104 (such as APs 104 a-104 g), such as by a macrocell base station. Amacrocell base station may utilize power outputs of typically tens ofwatts to cover an outdoor cell site of about five kilometers in whichthe station may receive wireless signals from a relatively large numberof mobile devices. The antennas for macrocells may be mounted onground-based masts, rooftops and other existing structures, at a heightthat provides a clear view over the surrounding buildings and terrain.

Each macrocell 102 may be further divided into one or more sectors.Various access terminals (ATs) 106, including ATs 106 a-106 k, alsoknown interchangeably as user equipment (UE) or mobile stations, may bedispersed throughout the system. As mobile phones, the access terminalsmay include portable telephones that may connect with a telephonenetwork over radio wave transmission. Each AT 106 may communicate withone or more APs 104 on a forward link (FL) and/or a reverse link (RL) ata given moment, depending upon whether the AT is active and whether itis in soft handoff, for example.

Femtocell base stations additionally may be dispersed throughout thesystem. A femtocell base station is a small, box-sized device that maycover an indoor cell site of a few dozen to a couple hundred meters. Amain advantage of a femtocell base station is that it allows users inand near a business, office, or home to use their mobile device withoutconcern that the walls of their building will significantly weaken theirsignal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a telecommunication system 200.Telecommunication system 200 may include a group of independent butinterrelated elements to assist in the transmission of signals over adistance for a purpose of communication. Telecommunication system 200may include a telecommunication network 202 that may be accessed in avariety of ways, including a landline 204, a macrocell base station 206,and a femtocell base station 208.

Telecommunication network 202 may be a network of telecommunicationslinks and nodes arranged so that messages may be passed from one part ofthe network to another over multiple links and through various nodes.Telecommunication network 202 may include a computer network, theinternet network as a global ‘network of networks’, a public switchedtelephone network, a global telex network, and the aeronautical AircraftCommunications Addressing and Reporting System network. In addition,telecommunication network 202 may carry control information, trafficfrom the users of the network, and operations and administration trafficrequired for network management.

Landline 204 may be a telephone line that may communicate withtelecommunication network 202 through a signal that may travel through ametal wire, optical fiber, or other solid medium 205. Also known as amain line and a fixed-line, landline 204 may include a telephone whosesignaling and audio information may be handled on a twisted pair ofinsulated wires. A twisted pair line may be more effective at rejectingelectromagnetic interference and crosstalk than an untwisted pair.

Macrocell base station 206 may be a tower installed at a fixed locationand having an antenna to provide outdoor coverage for mobile devicesignals 210 such as within a 3 mile (5 kilometer) radius. Macrocell basestation 206 may access telecommunication network 202 through a BaseStation Controller (BSC)/Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 212 and accesscontrol 214. The Base Station Controller portion of BSC/MSC 212 may actas a concentrator where many different low capacity connections becomereduced to a smaller number of connections towards the Mobile SwitchingCenter. Access control 214 may define or restrict passage of signalsbetween BSC/MSC 212 and telecommunication network 202.

Femtocell base station 208 may be a small cellular base station for usein and near residential environments and small business environments,such as a building 300. Femtocell base station 208 may allow serviceproviders to extend cellular service coverage indoors, especially whereaccess otherwise may be limited or unavailable. In addition, femtocellbase station 208 may provide a service to cellular users that happen tobe in close proximity to femtocell base station 208, where its signalmay be stronger than that of a macrocell. In an example, femtocell basestation 208 may be a device that is not intended to be mobile and isintended to reside in a fixed location.

Femtocell base station 208 may communicate with telecommunicationnetwork 202 through backhaul 216, gateway/Mobile Switching Center (MSC)218, and access control 220. Backhaul 216 may transport traffic betweendistributed sites provided by gateway/MSC 218 and femtocell base station208. Typically, femtocell base station 208 may be connected to theInternet and the cellular operator's network via DSL router or cablemodem. In an example, backhaul 216 may include at least one of aconsumer owned digital subscriber line (DSL), a cable, and a fiber link.Gateway/MSC 218 and access control 220 may function similarly to BSC/MSC212 and access control 214, respectively. BSC/MSC 212 and Gateway/MSC218 may transmit signals back and forth over a signal path 222. Bydirecting calls to a consumer installed femtocell that also usesconsumer owned backhaul, such as DSL or cable, the cellular networkoperator may realize substantial savings in capital and operatingexpenditures.

As a personal miniature base station installed in subscriber's location,femtocell base station 208 may employ the radio access network (RAN)functionality (e.g., BTS, BSC, PDSN) and provide service to a limitednumber of users. Femtocell base station 208 may provide service similarto a typical PSTN connected wired or cordless phone system with multiplereceivers. An example functionality of femtocell base station 208 is aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) femtocell containing aNode B, Radio Network Controller (RNC), and general packet radioservices (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) with Ethernet for backhaul.Femtocell base station 208 additionally may incorporate standards suchas GSM, cdma2000, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division MultipleAccess (TD-SCDMA), and Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access(WiMAX) solutions.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of building 300. Building 300 may be a structurethat has a roof and walls, such as a shopping mall, office building, orresidential home. For purposes of discussion, building 300 is drawn inFIG. 3 as a shopping mall 300 having retail units 302, such as a store304 and a store 306, and interconnecting walkways 308 to enablingvisitors 310 to easily walk from one shop 302 to the next. Retail units302 may include mercantile establishments for the sale of goods orservices. Walkways 308 may include paths set aside for walking. Visitors310 may include invitees, such as people who entered building 300 withfor a purpose of business or other dealings, and licensees whoseactivities may be conducted at the behest of an owner or possessor ofareas within building 300. Visitors 310 also may include someone whovisits and employees.

Building 300 may include a plurality of femtocell base stations 208. Forexample, the owner of building 300 may install femtocell base stations312 to 328 to service the wireless communication needs of its employeesand visitors 310. The proprietors of retail units 302 may installfemtocell base stations to service the wireless communication needs oftheir own employees and visitors 310. For example, store 304 may includea femtocell base station 330.

Femtocell base stations 208, including femtocell base stations 312 to328 and femtocell base station 330, may service mobile devices 224 (FIG.2) in and near building 300. For example, shopping mall owned femtocellbase station 312 may serve mobile devices 224 within a femtocell serviceregion 332 and proprietor owned femtocell base station 330 may servemobile devices 224 within a femtocell service region 334. Femtocellservice region 332 and femtocell service region 334 each may be ageographic region within which mobile devices 224 may communicate withfemtocell base station 312 and femtocell base station 330, respectively.Femtocell base station 208 typically may support up to eight mobiledevices 224 in a business setting. In an example, femtocell base station208 may support mobile device 226 (handset 2 or H1) (FIG. 2), mobiledevice 228 (handset 3 or H2), and mobile device 230 (handset 3 or H3).

Femtocell base station 208 may broadcast the communication services of asingle wireless service provider within a particular part of the 9 kHzto 300 GHz wireless spectrum. The wireless service providers may includeT-Mobile®, Sprint®, Verizon®, and AT&T®. Each femtocell base station 314in shopping mall 300 may be wireless plan specific. In one example,femtocell base station 314 may include a first femtocell base stationfor AT&T® customers and a second adjacent femtocell base station forVerizon® customers.

In operation, building 300 may prevent reasonable connection betweenmacrocell base station 206 and mobile devices 224 through a macrocellbase station signal 232. For example, interior walls, exterior walls,and windows of building 300 may result in signal power loss over atraveled path. When femtocell base station 208 is installed in building300, mobile devices 224 may communicate exclusively with femtocell basestation 208 through a mobile device signal 234 with minimal power loss.In an example, a mobile device 224 may use a little energy to monitorsignals from femtocell base station 208 approximately every 2.5 seconds.

Femtocell base station 208 may service the wireless communication needsof mobile devices 224 preregistered with the particular femtocell basestation 208 as their business femtocell base station. Preregisteredmobile devices may include those of the owner of the shopping mall, theproprietors of the stores within the shopping mall, and employees ofthese businesses. In addition, femtocell base station 208 may servicesthe wireless communication needs of visiting mobile devices. Here, themobile phones belonging to workers assigned to work in a particularstore 302 may be viewed as business phones whereas the mobile phones ofguests, visitors, those passing through the wireless communicationcoverage area of shopping mall owned femtocell base station 312 orproprietor owned femtocell base station 330 may be viewed as visitingmobile devices.

As people move in and out of shopping mall femtocell service region 332and proprietor femtocell service region 334, their mobile device 224 maymove in and out of femtocell service region 202. Thus, the makeup of theset of all mobile devices 224 within a given femtocell service regionmay change over time. In addition, some femtocell base stations willservice only those mobile devices having a subscription to a particularwireless provider. For example, a first femtocell base station 316 mayonly service mobile devices 224 that maintain a Verizon® wirelessservice plan whereas a second, adjacent femtocell base station 316 mayonly services mobile devices 224 that maintain a Sprint® wirelessservice plan. In an example, building 300 may include sufficientfemtocell base stations 208 to provide services for those mobile phonesubscribers within building 300.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 to deliver coupons to mobiledevices. FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 to deliver coupons to mobiledevices utilizing system 400. Method 500 may deliver a targeted contentmessage based on a location of a caller 402.

In system 400 and method 500, caller 402, such as a user holding amobile device 224, may represent the mobile devices. A business provider404 may own and operate a femtocell base station 208 that may be incommunication with telecommunication network 202. Caller 402 may make acall that may be carried by femtocell base station 208 operated bybusiness provider 404. An ad server 406 may maintain a coupon database408 storing coupons 410. Coupons 410 may be targeted content messagesstored in a variety of forms that may be capable of being formatted intoa variety of forms, such as a completed coupon to be transmitted througha text message, or an image of a coupon having a bar code that may bescanned, where the coupon may be transmitted as a Multimedia MessagingService (MMS) message. System 400 further may include atelecommunication provider 412 having a profile database 414 that mayhouse location information 416, caller information 418, and businessinformation 420. Telecommunication provider 412 may be a network entity412. System 400 and method 500 may utilize part or all of wirelesscommunication system 100 and/or telecommunication system 200.

Method 500 may start at step 502. At step 504, network entity 412 mayidentify businesses and other retail units 302 within the coverage areaof femtocell base station 208. Generally, retail units 302 will havepreregistered the phone numbers of their mobile devices with aparticular femtocell base station 208 and the location of such phonenumbers may be known and, in turn, the location of the given femtocellbase station 208 can be known. In addition, a given femtocell basestation 208 may receive wireless requests from a number of mobiledevices 224. The more requests the given femtocell base station 208received from a particular mobile device 224, the more likely that sucha mobile device 224 is a primary utilizer of the given femtocell basestation 208. Information about the preregistered mobile devices 224,such as that one belongs to a Gap® store and one belongs to a See'sCandy® store, may be stored within location information 416. Oncedetermined, this set of retail units 302 generally will not change overtime.

While macrocell 102 base stations can only narrow down a mobile devicelocation to within a couple of hundred meters, the coverage area offemtocell base station 208 may be a couple tens of meters (ten to thirtymeters). Visitors 310 located within such a small area may have asignificant interest in the twenty or so retail units 302 locatedimmediately near them that may be serviced by one femtocell basestation. In turn, the twenty or so retail units 302 located immediatelynear a particular visitor 310 may be interested in luring that visitor310 into their shop in hopes of making a sale.

Method 500 may take advantage of the small target area provided by afemtocell base station 208 to limit the amount of content to bebroadcast while increasing the effectiveness of that broadcast. Forexample, assume that a femtocell base station is located near Americanclothing and accessories retailer The Gap, Inc.® and that store desiresthat everyone passing in front of the store carrying a mobile phonehaving an exportable profile to receive a Gap® coupon if theirexportable profile indicates that the phone holder is under the age ofthirty. Here, it may be easier to manage a distribution of such contentfrom a femtocell base station performing relatively few tasks ratherthan from a macrocell base station, which performs a significant numberof tasks to handle hundreds of cell phones in addition to covering awide geographic area.

Coupons 410 and other targeted content messages should be sent at a timewhen visitor 310 is engaging with their mobile device 224. For example,targeted content messages 410 may be sent when caller 402 typicallywould otherwise receive a dial tone or a ringback tone. A dial toneincludes a telephony signal used to indicate that the telephone exchangeis working, has recognized an off-hook, and is ready to accept a call. Aringback tone is the audible ringing that may be heard on the telephoneline by the calling party after dialing and prior to the call beinganswered at the receiving end. The ringback tone serves to assure thecalling party that a ringing signal is being sent on the called party'sline, although the ringback tone may be out of sync with the ringingsignal. The ringback tone may be a ringing sound or a busy signal sound.Both the dial tone and the ringback tone may be locally generated inthat if caller 402 dialed Chicago, Ill. from San Diego, Calif., the tonelikely would be generated some place in California rather than inChicago. Caller 402 may receive either a dial tone or ringback tone, butnot both at the same time.

At step 506, method 500 may determine whether caller 402 has requested adial tone through femtocell base station 208. Typically, caller 402 mayrequest a dial tone on pressing an “on” button on mobile device 224 sothat mobile device 224 engages in communication with femtocell basestation 208. In addition, caller 402 may merely seek out couponsdelivered by this described method by pressing the “on” button on mobiledevice 224 without an actual desire to make a phone call or without anactual follow-up of making a phone call. In this way, method 500 mayconvert a previously non-revenue generating event—the dial tone—to arevenue generating event without invoking the pay features of a mobilephone subscription service.

If caller 402 has requested a dial tone, then method 400 may proceed tostep 510. If caller 402 has not requested a dial tone, then method 400may determine at step 508 whether caller 402 has requested a ringbacktone through femtocell base station 208. Typically, caller 402 mayrequest a ringback tone by pressing a “send” button mobile device 224after inputting a telephone number into mobile device 224. If caller 402has not requested a ringback tone, then method 400 may return to step506. If caller 402 has requested a ringback tone, then method 400 mayproceed to step 510.

At step 510, network entity 412 may determine whether it has identifyinginformation 418 about caller 402 within profile database 414. An exampleof identifying information about caller 402 may be an exportable versionof the profile of the caller, including identity (e.g., name, age,gender), preferences, likes, and dislikes. The profile of caller 402 mayinclude information about the user's behavior (which stores they havevisited in the past, products they have bought), mobile serviceregistration details, and information voluntarily provided by caller402. The exportable profile may have traveled from mobile device 224 tonetwork entity 412. Additionally, network entity 412 may have previouslycompiled profile data for the phone number of mobile device 224.

If network entity 412 determines at step 510 that it does haveadditional information on caller 402, then method 500 may proceed tostep 512 with both location information 416 and caller information 418as gathered information 422. If network entity 412 determines at step510 that it does not have additional information on caller 402, thenmethod 500 may proceed to step 512 with location information 416 aboutbusiness provider 404 and other businesses located near femtocell basestation 208 as gathered information 422.

At step 512, method 500 may compare gathered information 422 to coupons410 in coupon database 408 to obtain a coupon set 424. In general,coupon set 424 may be a function of the immediate physical location ofcaller 402 and more particularly a function of both the businesseswithin the coverage area of femtocell base station 208 and a profile ofcaller 402 utilizing femtocell base station 208. Each coupon may includea price reduction or other incentive for caller 402 using the mobiledevice to return and redeem the coupon at one of the target businessproviders immediately near caller 402. Coupon set 424 may includecoupons of business provider 404 and include coupons for other serviceproviders located near business provider 404, namely that utilizefemtocell base station 208. Coupon set 424 may include any targetedcontent message, including non-coupon advertisements and may includeaudio, visual, and vibratory or haptic features.

At step 514, method 500 may establish a coupon delivery priority forcoupon set 424. The coupon delivery priority may be based on whichtargeted content message 410 promises to yield the most revenue such asto network entity 412. For example, if coupon set 424 contained both aGap® coupon and a See's Candy® coupon and delivery of the See's Candy®coupon would generate more display revenue for network entity 412, thenthe See's Candy® coupon may be delivered first to mobile device 224 and,if sufficient time remained during the tone period, then the Gap® couponcould be delivered.

At step 516, method 500 may determine whether to send text messagecoupons to caller 402 for more than one business. The coupons for morethan one business may include coupons for business provider 404—theowner of femtocell base station 208—and coupons for providers locatednear business provider 404. Business provider 404 may be motivated toprovide coupons for providers located near business provider 404 throughfemtocell base station 208 if business provider 404 split the targetedcontent message display revenue with network entity 412. If method 500determines to send text message coupons for more than one business, thenmethod 500 may proceed to step 522 and send those text message couponsto the mobile device 224 utilized by caller 402. The coupons may be sentto caller 402 by network entity 412 in a form of text message with acoupon for each service provider. If method 500 determines not to sendcoupons for more than one business, then method 500 may proceed to step518.

At step 518, method 500 may determine whether to send a text messagecoupon to caller 402 for the target service provider that owns femtocellbase station 208; that is to say, method 500 may determine at step 518determine whether to send caller 402 a text message coupon for businessprovider 404 only. If method 500 determines to send caller 402 a textmessage coupon for business provider 404, then method 500 may proceed tostep 522 and send that text message coupon to the mobile device 224utilized by caller 402. Here, network entity 412 may send caller 402 atext message with a coupon for the Gap®, for example. If method 500determines not to send caller 402 a text message coupon for businessprovider 404, then method 500 may proceed to step 520.

At step 520, method 500 may determine whether to send caller 402 acoupon image. If method 500 determines to send caller 402 a couponimage, then method 500 may proceed to step 522 and send caller 402 aMultimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message with an image of a couponwith a bar code that can be scanned. If method 500 determines not tosend caller 402 a coupon image, then method 500 may return to step 506.

A call establishment indicator may include any signal utilized toattract attention to and perhaps characterize a step in a process tobring about a wireless communication. For example, as used herein, acall establishment indicator may include both a dial tone and a ringbacktone. At step 522, method 500 may send caller 402 a targeted contentmessage, such as a coupon. The coupon may be delivered to caller 402'smobile device 224 through femtocell base station 208 in place of a callestablishment indicator, such as a dial tone or a ringback tone. Forexample, through replacing dial or ringback call establishment tones,instead of hearing a ringback tone, caller 402 may hear, “While weattempt to locate your party, please stop by Auntie Anne's Pretzels®immediately near you to use the half-off coupon you just received inyour phone.” call establishment indicator

In another example, method 500 may incorporate a discount on the phonecall in exchange for listening to an advertisement for a businessadjacent to caller 402. For example, caller 402 may hear, “Please enjoythe first three minutes of your phone call compliments of RubyTuesday's@ restaurant,” while physically being in a position to see theRuby Tuesday's@ restaurant. Such an offer may motivate callers to movefrom their present location in shopping mall 300 to be within afemtocell base station 208 wireless communication coverage area wherethey may obtain a discount on their phone call. By bringing potentialcustomers closer to a set of retail stores 302 serviced by a givenfemtocell base station 208, method 500 may make it more likely that suchcustomers may enter those retail stores, which is a desirable outcomefor the set of retail stores 302. Under this example, as the number offemtocell base stations 208 within shopping mall 300 increase, thecoverage area for a given femtocell base station 208 may be decreasedsuch as to a point where a consumer needs to be standing directly infront or within a particular store to take advantage of offers includedin a targeted content message. Here, each retail store 302 may desiretheir own, relatively inexpensive femtocell base station 208 as part oftheir advertising budget.

A ring cadence may be two seconds of ringing followed by four seconds ofsilence. In one example, the time over which coupons may be conveyed tocaller 402 may not be less than eight seconds and not greater thantwenty seconds. However, the time over which coupons are conveyed tocaller 402 should be long enough to convey the message but not longerthan that which would tax the patience of caller 402. In anotherexample, the time over which coupons may be conveyed to caller 402 maynot be less than five seconds and not greater than seven seconds. Sincethe ringback tone heard by caller 402 may be out of sync with theringing signal heard by the called person, the coupon packet may includecoding to force a time delay between caller 402 hearing the ringbacktone and the person receiving the call hearing the ringing signal. Thismay allow method 500 to implement a predetermined time over whichcoupons may be conveyed to caller 402. From step 522, method 500 mayreturn to step 506.

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagrams of several sample aspects ofapparatuses configured to facilitate communication handoff as taughtherein. The components described herein may be implemented in a varietyof ways. Referring to FIG. 6, apparatus 600 is represented as a seriesof interrelated functional blocks. The function block diagram maydescribe a function between input variables and output variablesutilizing a set of elementary blocks where input and output variablesmay be connected to blocks by connection lines and an output of a blockalso may be connected to an input of another block. In some aspects, thefunctionality of these blocks may be implemented as a processing systemincluding one or more processor components. In some aspects, thefunctionality of these blocks may be implemented using, for example, atleast a portion of one or more integrated circuits (e.g., an ASIC). Asdiscussed herein, an integrated circuit may include a processor,software, other related components, or some combination thereof. Thefunctionality of these blocks also may be implemented in some othermanner as taught herein. The apparatus 600 may include one or moremodules that may perform one or more of the functions described abovewith regard to various figures. Apparatus 600 may include an identifyingmeans 602, a determining means 604, a sending means 606, and a receivingmeans 608, each configured to be in communication with other elements ofapparatus 600. Outputs of identifying means 602 and determining means604 may be transmitted between sending means 606 and receiving means608.

Identifying means 602 may correspond to, for example, a mobile deviceset identifier such as for mobile devices presently in communicationwith the femtocell base station and whose unique identifiers arepreregistered with the femtocell base station and such as discussedherein. Identifying means 602 may correspond to a processor such asdiscussed herein. The processor may instruct a receiver to monitor forsignals on an uplink and instruct a processor to process any signalsreceived by the receiver. The processor may attempt to demodulate anddecode received signals. The processor may generate information relatingto acquired signals. The processor may be a central processing unit andmay be a machine that can execute computer programs.

A determining means 604 may correspond to, for example, a processor asdiscussed herein. Determining means 604 may correspond to, for example,a signal processor as discussed herein. The processor may determinewhether a received call includes one of a unique identifier of a targetmobile device and a unique identifier of the femtocell base station. Theprocessor may determine whether a second mobile device answered a pagingmessage if the call is for the second mobile device. The processor maydetermine whether a first mobile device answered a paging message if thesecond mobile device did not answered the call, determine whether todisconnect the first mobile device from a traffic channel with thefemtocell base station if the second mobile device answered the pagingmessage and the first mobile device answered the paging message, anddetermine whether a conference call feature has been enabled in thefemtocell base station. In addition, the processor may determine whetherto block the second mobile device from answering the paging message ifthe first mobile device answered the paging message.

A sending means 606 may correspond to, for example, a device such as atransceiver to send a paging message from the femtocell base station asdiscussed herein. Sending means 606 may correspond to, for example, acontroller as discussed herein. A receiving means 608 may correspond to,for example, a transceiver to receive a call in the femtocell basestation as discussed herein. Receiving means 608 may correspond to, forexample, a communication controller as discussed herein. One transceivermay communicate with other transceivers and with other nodes. Eachtransceiver may include a respective transmitter to send signals and arespective receiver to receive signal. Each transceiver may receive andprocess a respective information stream to provide one or more analogsignals, and further conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, andupconverts) the analog signals to provide a modulated signal suitablefor transmission. A transceiver may include at least one of atransmitter and a receiver, where a transmitter and receiver may becombined and share common circuitry or a single housing.

While the specification describes particular examples of the presentinvention, those of ordinary skill can devise variations of the presentinvention without departing from the inventive concept. For example, theteachings herein refer to circuit-switched network elements but areequally applicable to packet-switched domain network elements.

Those skilled in the art will understand that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, methods and algorithmsdescribed in connection with the examples disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,methods and algorithms have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentinvention.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the examples disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration. Additionally, at least one processor may comprise one ormore modules operable to perform one or more of the steps and/or actionsdescribed above.

The methods or algorithms described in connection with the examplesdisclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a softwaremodule executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. Asoftware module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory,EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, aCD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. A storagemedium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can readinformation from, and write information to, the storage medium. In thealternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. Theprocessor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, insome aspects, the steps and/or actions of a method or algorithm mayreside as one or any combination or set of codes and/or instructions ona machine readable medium and/or computer readable medium, which may beincorporated into a computer program product.

Part or all of the systems mentioned herein may be implemented as acomputer program product on a storage medium having instructions storedthereon/in. These instructions may be used to control, or cause, acomputer to perform any of the processes. For example, a computer mayexecute a computer readable medium having a set of instructions which,when executed by a computer, cause the computer to deliver a coupon to amobile device using method 300. The storage medium may include withoutlimitation any type of disk including floppy disks, mini disks (MD's),optical disks, DVDs, CD-ROMs, micro-drives, and magneto-optical disks,ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices(including flash cards), magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems(including molecular memory ICs), RAID devices, remote datastorage/archive/warehousing, or any type of media or device suitable forstoring instructions and/or data.

In one or more exemplary embodiments, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Astorage media may be any available media that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code inthe form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed bya computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc,optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray discwhere disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproducedata optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosed examples is provided to enableany person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention.Various modifications to these examples will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein maybe applied to other examples without departing from the spirit or scopeof the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to belimited to the examples shown herein but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to deliver a targeted content message toa mobile device, the method comprising: identifying a set of businesseswithin a coverage area of a femtocell base station to produce gatheredinformation; receiving a request for a call establishment indicator fromthe mobile device through the femtocell base station; identifying atargeted content message as a function of the gathered information; andsending the targeted content message to the mobile device as part of thecall establishment indicator.